FootlooseEcon

I am the Grad Captain for the Recruitment Weekend at UCI (a fancy title that means I make sure no one is stranded or lost), so feel free to ask me with any questions you have, especially if you aren't going to be able to make the flyout. Most of these questions are things that we will cover during the two days. As my one shameless plug for coming to the flyout, we have dinner at the beach and the temperature will be in the mid 70s. With regards to attrition, I can say that the number of people failing the prelim exams is between 2-4 students depending on the cohort size. The prelims are mainly just a way to make sure that you learned your stuff during the core courses, they aren't meant to weed people out of the program. As for TA responsibilities, they will average about 10 hours a week. 20 hours will only happen when you are grading midterms or finals.

I spent more than a fair amount of time at NEU, hit me up with any questions you may have and I will see if I can't answer them.

I know exactly how you feel. I hate writing that email, even if I know 100% that I am not going. It probably comes from my dislike of hurting other people's feelings, which is decidedly un-rational.

I have declined Georgia State and Kentucky so far, a few more to come as they roll in.

Institution: Georgia State Program: Economics PhD Decision: Accepted Funding: N/A Notification date: 03/15/12 Notified through: Status Check Online Posted on GC: no Comments: 6 for 6 so far.

Interestingly, the school I am getting my masters at is approximately 60% female in the economics PhD. Though that is largely driven by a very strange year that was about 75% female. Most years are about even, 50/50.

One of the best professors I have had in grad school did development at Oregon, so I am probably biased towards them. In all seriousness though, she speaks very highly of the department. I also think that their placement is better than the rest of the funded offers on the list.

I think they are the same people who bang on the glass at the zoo just to watch the animals freak out.

I was only there for a year as research assistant for the macroeconomic and labor economics team. It's pretty intense, projects come in and some are pretty simple and can be done in a day or two, others are month long endeavors. The challenge is managing the 20 or so different projects that are up in the air at any one time. The basic work doesn't require much beyond Excel, but the more complicated projects can require tons of econometrics training. I really enjoyed it though. I think it's a very different environment than academia and requires a different mindset, which is both a good and a bad thing. You learn to think on your feet and find creative work arounds to difficult questions. You also become an expert on data sources and collection very quickly. My firm was one of the best ones, so my co-workers were traveling the world for projects. I think one spent a month in Paris, another did a month in Singapore, as well as trips to Rio, Johannesberg, and Sydney. And the salaries people get can be pretty high, I know some of the senior people on the team were in the high 100s and low 200s, after only 10 years with the firm.

It all depends on the firm I guess. The premier firms have a relatively low ceiling for master's. If anything they take people with MAs keep them for three or four years and then push them out into PhD programs. Team leaders and client facing individuals are more likely to have a PhD. And your ability in econometrics is likely to be a very big factor in your end performance. Which is why PhDs tend to do better.

It's How I Met Your Mother. So who gets to be Robin Sparkles?

Beware the Ides of March.

I also saw that 4 of the 8 job market candidates this year are macro people with monetary and international trade fields, for whatever it's worth.

At UCI, ECON 260-269 are the Macro field courses. There are two in international economics and two in monetary, with a fifth being a seminar in advanced macroeconomics. It's on the graduate courses page.

ECON 260-269 is the Macro Fields. They have a field sequence in international economics and one in monetary, as well as a seminar course in advanced macroeconomics. Graduate Course Descriptions | UCI Economics